I had THE sweetest old man for driver’s ed in high
school. This was back in the day when
Montgomery County offered driving as an elective before you applied for your
license. There were a lot of great
things about the class—the simulators with the totally dated 1960s films, all
my friends were there, and the “academics” weren’t especially challenging. I remember the teacher talking about natural
vs. man-made laws. He warned that you
might get away with speeding now and then but if you take a turn too fast on a
slick road, you WILL end up in a ditch.

As a new business starter, I’ve been spending time
thinking/speculating/daydreaming about what is core to the business vs. a
bureaucratic set of practices that accumulate as big companies make policies
around small problems.

Clearly, there are layers of oversight that can be
streamlined (or eliminated in my case). Progress reports and tag-up meetings
can be canceled (despite warnings of dire consequences from the Project
Management Institute (PMI)).

However, compromised work quality, lack of responsiveness to
a client, or failure to bring the very best idea to the table are
inexcusable. Obvious, right? What I find amazing though is how the most
successful among us use and advance these natural consulting laws to their
advantage. A good reminder when you’re
sorting the “must do” from everything else.